The Internet is a collection of computers linked together throughout the world. Some of these computers act as clients for their users. Other computers act as servers, or hosts, for one or more websites. Each website Internet Protocol (IP) address may be shared by multiple sites or may be unique to one particular website, and these addresses are related to website names conventionally known as Universal Resource Locators (URLs). The URLs on a website's page(s) “point” to another site and are referred to as “links”.
The Owners or managers of websites (Webmasters) all share a common interest: increased user traffic to their websites. A common way this is promoted among Webmasters is their mutual agreement to include links to each other's websites. Users will often utilize these links to navigate to other sites of interest, thus increasing traffic. Navigation is accomplished by the user operating a link by clicking his/her mouse on the link's web-page representation (i.e., the URL or some symbol, banner or icon representing the URL of the website). This process eliminates the need for the user to enter the URL by typing it into the web browser being used. By simplifying the navigation process, it's been discovered that users are more likely to visit more websites.
When two Webmasters agree to mutual links, these are often referred to as reciprocal links, because of their reciprocal agreement. Should one Webmaster remove a link to the other's website, the “offended” Webmaster needs to know the mutual agreement has been broken so that appropriate action can be taken. Checking for this situation manually is very time-consuming. Accordingly, it is common for link exchange websites to initiate an automated, computer-implemented spidering process through the reciprocally linked Webmasters' sites beginning at their respective link addresses to verify that the reciprocal link information is present at the Webmasters' sites.
In the typical linking process, the Webmaster or Owner of Website B becomes interested in a reciprocal link with Website A. Subsequently, Website B's Owner or Webmaster sends an e-mail message to Website A's Webmaster (typically Webmaster@websiteA.com) identifying themselves (typically websiteB.com) and proposing a reciprocal link. Next, Website A's Owner or Webmaster visits Website B and determines his/her interest. Then the Owners reach agreement and turn the technical task of implementing the links over to their respective Webmasters. Typically, the Website A Webmaster fulfills his/her end of the agreement first by editing Website A's web page using an appropriate HTML editor and inserting Website B's URL (converting the address text into a hyperlink) into the appropriate web page on Website A. This may be augmented by some symbol, banner, or icon (either physically-furnished or access-furnished by Website B's Webmaster). If multiple links exist on a single page, it may be necessary to set the font of the link to correspond with other links on the page.
Other parameters concerning the link may also need to be adjusted at this time by the Website A Webmaster, possibly including positional placement on the web page or other attributes. Moreover, Website A Webmaster notifies the Website B Webmaster (typically by e-mail) saying “we've posted our link to you; you post ours”. Of course, a variety of message types and/or wording could be utilized to convey the information in the message. Website B Webmaster edits Website B's web page following essentially the same procedure as outlined above.
The practice of automatically linking the web page of the first Webmaster to the web page of the second Webmaster, without any intervention from the first Webmaster, is not believed to always be in the best interest of the first Webmaster. For example, suppose the first site is owned by a politician of a large political party and maintains a website supporting his/her beliefs and political party. A second Owner has a website for another large political party, and perhaps, is a political opponent of the first Webmaster. Under existing systems, the second Owner (or his Webmaster) could establish a link from the first Owner's website. As another example, perhaps the first Owner is a pro-life activist that maintains a website and the second Owner advocates pro-choice through a website. Obviously, the first Owner may not likely desire the second Owner (or his Webmaster) to establish a link from the first Owner's site to the second Owner's site.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method of automatically establishing links according to criteria predefined by the website owner(s), and even bi-directional (or reciprocal) links between two websites. Specifically, a need exists for creating web site links, which greatly simplifies the traditional method of creating web sites, but still provides for approval according to criteria set by the first site's Webmaster to allow the second site's Webmaster to establish a link to the first web site.
Thus, a link exchange system and method solving the aforementioned problems is desired.